The King is Dead, Long Live the King
by nubianamy
Summary: What Dave did after prom.


_After 2x20, Prom Queen._

Dave supposed living in a town with a 24-hour donut shop was a good thing, to some people. To him, though, it was just another dangling example of the things he couldn't have. Would never have, he supposed, if things kept going the way they had been. But it felt like a sort of fit punishment, in a way, too. So Dave ordered a small coffee, black, and slid into the back booth, staring into the cup while it cooled enough for him to drink. He hated coffee.

Suddenly long legs were crowding his under the table. Dave looked up, startled, into the resentful gaze of Finn Hudson.

"So much for being a just and noble king," he said.

Dave scowled at his styrofoam cup. "I'm a usurper."

"A what?"

"A fake king. It doesn't matter. What are you doing here? Isn't there a stupid after-prom thing for you losers?"

"You didn't even dance with him." Finn sounded wounded. "Dude, he's my stepbrother. It was bad enough they wrote him in to begin with, but you could have at least —"

"No," Dave ground out. "I couldn't." He really meant to leave it at that, stop engaging Finn and wait for him to go away, but he had to add, "You don't have any idea how good you've got it."

"Uh." Finn laughed, incredulous. "_Me?_ You're the one who got elected Prom King. You went to prom with one of the hottest girls in school."

_I'm a fake,_ Dave couldn't say. _They elected a fraud and I'm a fucking fraud in the rest of my life too, so it's not like I could just come home and have it be over. It doesn't matter where I go; it'll just be like this. _He took a sip of too-hot coffee and burned his tongue.

"None of that matters," he said instead. "I wouldn't expect you to understand."

Finn rubbed his forehead. He would have said something about the jelly on the table in front of him, but Finn had already put his elbow into it, and he figured it would just make things worse for him to point out Finn's mistake.

"Well, you're king now. Whether it matters or not, you've got power. Can't you use, you know, the right of the lord to — "

Dave snorted. "No, the _droit du seigneur?_ That's the right of the medieval lord to sleep with anybody they want to. Kings' rights were divinely granted. Different system entirely." He met Finn's stare with his own. "What?"

"Whatever, man," Finn said. "Power's power."

"Yeah, well, I abdicate. You want the fucking crown? You can have it."

Finn shook his head, grinning. "Nah. I never wanted it either. That was Quinn's thing. I got kicked out for fighting."

"No fucking way." He grinned back despite himself. "What about Puck? You think he'd claim it? He can be John of Gloucester."

"He'd probably drain the kingdom's treasury to pay for beer."

Finn seemed to realize what they were doing at the same time Dave did. They let their smiles slip away, returning their eyes to the table.

"I just think it doesn't have to be the same old stupid stuff, over and over again." He sounded so fucking earnest. "Aren't we supposed to, like, learn from history's mistakes?"

Dave had no idea how it could be any other way. But Finn apparently thought it was possible to end up in a place where he didn't have to hate himself all the time, so who was he to question that? Maybe in Finn's world, where you had friends who knew who you were and your peers didn't use the word _faggot_ in every other sentence, that actually _was_ possible.

"You're the one who thought I wanted to join your stupid Glee club," he muttered. "Why should I listen to you?"

Finn didn't look away. "Yeah, well, maybe I still think you should."

_Another club that wouldn't have me as a member._ "I'm sure that'd go over real well with Hummel and his hags."

He shrugged. "It's not up to them, is it? Worst you can do is try and decide you hate it. Anyway, your girlfriend's in Glee. She'd have your back."

It was like everything was all settled. Finn was going to fix his life with one fucking swoop of his magic wand. Dave tried sneering, but all he got out was a nervous laugh. "You've got one fucked up view of the world, Hudson."

"Maybe. But I also have four pizzas and two decks of cards waiting at my house. I think that beats out whatever hand you were going to play tonight." Finn nodded at the styrofoam cup. "Unless you were really hoping to sit here drinking that shit."

Dave poked the cup with one finger, and shook his head in defeat. "I hate coffee."

"Ah, the truth comes out." Finn grinned at him as they stood. "Yeah. Me too."


End file.
